KHARTOUM (AFP) - Sudan said Darfur rebels on Monday shot and killed five kidnapped Chinese oil workers and that two others escaped with gunshot wounds in the first deadly foreign hostage ordeal since the war began.

The circumstances surrounding the deaths were shadowy and Sudan denied that there had been any clashes between security forces and the kidnappers, who reportedly identified themselves as the Justice and Equality Movement.

Two other Chinese oil workers -- from a group of nine snatched on October 18 in Korodofan outside Darfur -- remain in captivity, said the government.

"It happened around 3:00 pm (1200 GMT). Those people from JEM killed five Chinese and two of the Chinese workers managed to escape. They are now with the government," foreign ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadiq told AFP.

The killings came one day after Sudan expressed confidence that the three engineers and six workers from the China National Petroleum Corporation, would soon be released safe and well.

China, the main buyer of Sudan's oil, a key economic investor and perhaps Khartoum's most powerful foreign ally, has been accused in the West of not doing enough to help bring an end to the nearly six-year conflict in Darfur.

The bodies and the two wounded former hostages were recovered by Sudanese government forces in a small village in western Kordofan, and the injured are undergoing medical treatment, the spokesman said.

"This happened without any confrontation with the abductors, while the government was trying to solve the problem through peaceful means," said Sadiq.

But one local leader denied the official version of events.

"There was fighting between the Sudanese army and the kidnappers. As a result of this fighting, the five have been killed," he told AFP by telephone from Kordofan, asking that his identity not be disclosed.

Tribal mediators on Monday went into the bush hoping to see the abductors for the first time, but returned to the town of Muglad without meeting them.

JEM has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the kidnapping.